"Of the many references to Newton in 18th-century electrical writings only a small number were to the Principia, the greater part by far were to the Opticks. This was true not alone of the electrical writings but also in other fields of experimental enquiry. ...[The Opticks] would allow the reader to roam, with great Newton as his guide, through the major unresolved problems of science and even the relation of the whole world of nature to Him who had created it. ...in the Opticks Newton did not adopt the motto... —Hypotheses non fingo; I frame no hypotheses—but, so to speak, let himself go, allowing his imagination full reign and by far exceeding the bounds of experimental evidence."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
I. Bernard Cohen, Preface to Opticks by Sir Isaac Newton (1952)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/I._Bernard_Cohen
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
I. Bernard Cohen
I. Bernard Cohen (1 March 1914 – 20 June 2003) was the Victor S. Thomas Professor of the history of science at Harvard University and the author of many books on the history of science and, in particular, Isaac Newton.
9 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by I. Bernard Cohen →
Related Quotes
"Opticks was out of harmony with the ideas of 19th-century physics. ...an exposition of the "wrong" (i.e., corpuscular…"
"Galileo had the experience of beholding the heavens as they actually are for perhaps the first time, and wherever he …"
"His conflict with the Catholic Church arose because deep in his heart Galileo was a believer. There was for him no pa…"
"Isaac Newton deserves to be included in a series of companions to major philosophers even though he was not a philoso…"
"By contrast, Galileo, the other legendary scientific figure of the era, not only published the most compelling critiq…"
"The seventeenth century witnessed the birth of modern science as we know it today. The science was something new, bas…"
"The pioneering practitioners of the new science knew that they were producing a new kind of knowledge and so they dec…"
"Proud of being the first American to receive a doctorate expressly in the history of science (as opposed to writing a …"
"Americans have always been especially prone to regard all things as resulting from the free choice of a free will. Pr…"
"Democracy is clearly most appropriate for countries which enjoy an economic surplus and least appropriate for countri…"